Half an hour before the power outage scheduled, Fahima Mohamed “Om Mohamed”, who works as a building guard in Dar Al-Salam area, starts warning the residents against taking the elevator to avoid repeating the same accidents she read about on social media; elevators broke down trapping people inside.
Reducing electricity loads crisis all over the Egyptian governorates started at different hours during the fay by the end of last July, and starting August, the Egyptian Cabinet introduced a fixed schedule of power outage titled “Reducing Loads Schedule”; aiming at preserving gas used in power grids especially during summer.
Elevators are vital for those who live in high-rise buildings in Dar Al-Salam and Hadayeq El maadi areas, the buildings there are of average 6 floors creating a crisis for residents who have to deal with elevator accidents, then the crisis of taking the stairs up and down during the hours of power outages.
Om Mohamed moves from the building entrance to sit in front of the elevator’s door, she takes her chair and an iced water bottle which relieves her long wait during the power outage which starts from 9 pm to 10 pm, she scrolls down her social media page, then connects with the residents’ group via “WhatsApp” to make sure no one is locked inside the elevator; that’s why she doubled her internet package subscription on her phone.
Elevators became a source of concern after the start of power outage crisis as many were subject to accidents daily during their journey up and down buildings, whereas social media is loaded with stories of people trapped inside elevators due to these outages.
“Is someone in the elevator?”, calls Abdulaal, a building guard in Hadayeq El maadi area, trying to help a trapped resident there.
In the beginning, before officially announcing the schedule of power outage, the same accident reoccurred with the residents, at that time Abdulaal would go up to the last floor and then turn the elevator motor with his hand until it moved to the nearest floor and the resident could exit. After setting the daily outage times, it became easy for him to inform the residents not take the elevator a few minutes before and after the start and end of the outage.
Mohamed is scared that while he is turning the elevator’s motor the power would suddenly return and he would lose his hand, but the next building’s guard advised him to cut the power completely before doing this to be safe from any danger.
Since the crisis started, Mohamed and other buildings’ guards are connecting searching for solutions to protect themselves and the residents from the outage dangers.
Sumayia Mahmoud and her husband, are both building guards in Hadayeq El maadi, they both decided to keep the emergency key for the elevator during the hour of the power outage, although the building’s owners association do not give this key to the guards for the fear of losing it; that’s why Sumayia thinks the key is the solution for it opens the elevator’s door during the power cut.
When Sumayia learned that the outage is scheduled at 9 pm, she and her husband decided to postpone all their tasks until 09:30 until they made sure no one is trapped inside the elevator, and they would ask the residents to take the stairs ten minutes before the outage.
“Elevator Emergency Course” is what some of the residents suggested on “Owners Association Group” on WhatsApp, which the association chief will organise through consulting “Elevator’s Technician” who would explain to the youth how to pull up the elevator and use the emergency key. Sumayia followed this suggestion, and it is a solution the owners saw as having someone else assume responsibility for this matter, instead of resorting to the guards who are disrupted from daily tasks due to their preoccupation with the elevator and its crisis.
